With society's increasing awareness of the dwindling supply of natural resources and overflowing landfills, many communities are providing and mandating recycling services to their residents. The benefits of these efforts have already begun to be seen and will continue to be realized in the future. However, as with most beneficial programs, these efforts are accompanied by some burdens. One (1) of these burdens is that the bulk of recycled materials consist of various containers such as beverage cans, steel cans, and plastic containers, and there is much wasted space present from the air in the containers. As such, a user must empty the said recycling container on a frequent basis since it tends to fill rapidly, thus leading to additional frustration. Another common practice is to crush or otherwise compact recyclable containers prior to placing them in a designated container. However, in many situations, a multitude of such containers must be dealt with simultaneously. Common problems include fatigue on the part of a user during this process as well as the inability of crushing by hand to achieve a desired level of compaction.
Various attempts have been made to provide device which assist in the crushing and compaction of recyclable containers. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,587, issued in the name of Wharton, describes a can crusher. The Wharton device provides an operating handle for leverage in crushing a can which a user has pre-provided with a slit along an outer surface to achieve full compaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,536, issued in the name of Dodd, describes an electrically actuated can crusher. The Dodd apparatus provides a powered means for compacting a can or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,455, issued in the name of Geise, describes an aluminum can compacting mechanism including a handle for providing increased mechanical advantage to a user during a can crushing operation.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are not automatic in the sense that prolonged use presents a physical hardship to a user. In addition, many such devices are not utilizable in a plurality of desired locations such as garages, picnic sites, and the like, due to lack of power sources, difficulty in transport, and the like. Accordingly, there exists a need for a recyclable container compacting apparatus without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.